Gaye Adegbalola

Gaye Adegbalola

It is a rare performer who can pull off being funny with blues music, even fewer who use the truth to supply the lyrics. Gaye Adegbalola has been writing blues songs since the 1980s, when she was a founding member of Saffire – The Uppity Blues Women. She won a W.C. Handy award in 1990 for her song Middle Age Blues Boogie.

Her songs have always spring from her actual life and circumstances.  In her words: “While I try to maintain the BLUES FORM in all my compositions, I write about contemporary content, contemporary problems (often in a humorous way). The BLUES CONTENT thrives on double and triple entendre. It is poetically rich. My song topics address ageism, sexism, domestic abuse, unemployment, education, civil rights, health insurance, incest, i.e. contemporary problems.”

Richard Skelly, writing a biography of Gaye Adegbalola for allmusic.com^1. says it better that I ever could – “Gaye Adegbalola is best-known to blues fans as the flamboyant, flashy, very funny frontwoman for Saffire, The Uppity Blues Women. But on her debut release as a solo artist for Alligator Records, she's in fine voice, accompanied by some great players and, true-to-form, pushing into new thematic ground in her lyrics. That's why Adegbalola is a breath of fresh air on the contemporary blues scene…”

Yes, she is! I find it encouraging that an established blues performer writes contemporary lyrics – this is the whole thrust of my blog. But it is discouraging to realize that nobody else has recorded her fine contemporary songs on their own albums. ^2.  I understand why an artist might not record a song about wanting another girl in her jail cell (Jail House Blues) and many songs are too specifically autobiographical for artists who are not black, lesbian, abused as a child or battered as an adult. But songs like Blues in the House, Tomorrow Ain’t Promised, Cold Pizza Warm Beer and Only One Truth could work for anyone.

It is sad that the song with the highest number of iTunes purchases and Spotify plays is a cover tune -  It Hurts Me Too. Consolation - Big Ovaries, Baby comes in at #2.

Adegbalola is primarily an acoustic artist. Musically, most songs derive from musical forms of older “folk blues”, spirituals and blues standards. Her melodies and chord structures are less adventurous than her lyrics, which may be a result of her desire to preserve the Blues Form as she has expressed. She could stretch out musically a little more, as shown by Images which takes the spiritual form into an extra dimension.

Focusing on lyrics, let’s start with the Saffire songs. Middle Aged Blues Boogie helped them find commercial success and this song epitomizes the humor and “uppityness” that makes them popular. The humor is broad and tends to wear on me after a while because it seems too obvious. Given that the songs have to come across live in concert, maybe they have to be that obvious. Listening to Adegbalola singing about her vagina is entertaining the first couple of times but after four or five vagina-related songs, it feels like she is rubbing it in my face.^3.

I find many Saffire humor songs just a little too cutesy, even though they are honest and deal with life as it really happens in the 21^st century. Humor is balanced by songs about civil rights, injustice, racism, child abuse and there a bunch of songs I’d just call fun blues.

Continuing her career as a solo artist after Saffire disbanded, Gaye Adegbalola continued to be funny, entertaining, and also damn scary honest. Who can you think of that could pull off a humorous tune and a six-minute political speech on the same album?

I hope that Adegbalola inspires blues songwriters to write about what is actually happening in their own lives, and what they truly feel about these things.

Some of the topics she takes on -

Being a battered woman – You Don’t Have to Take It Like I Did

Being abused as a child – Nightmare

Contraception - Bareback Rider.

She shows her honesty when she addresses nuances and contradictions in her life. For instance, she has a ton of songs that celebrate being a lesbian, but she slips in a song like Hetero Twinges where she finds herself attracted to a man. My favorite Adegbalola song is Step Parent Blues - a great example of what modern blues could and should be. It is so specific and focused that it expresses the universal – any step parent, whether gay or straight, will empathize and identify with the singer. A lesbian wife wants to be closer to her partner’s child. She has been “Stepping to the side, And Steppin to the back, Steppin on eggshells, And taking too much flack. The law won’t recognize me, And you pay me no respect. I know you want me to step away, And step back. What am I supposed to do? I got those step parent blues.” Then in the bridge – “There’s no loving her, Without loving you… I need your help, To end my step parent blues.” This timeless song is so heart-felt, so real, so honest, so Gaye Adegbalola.

Blues in all Flavors is an album of blues songs for children, with a mixture of novelty songs and advice.  Topics range from vegetables (Blues for the Greens) to good manners (Please, Please, Please, Please and The Thank You Song.) Gaye Adegbalola was a junior high school teacher for many years (awarded Virginia State Teacher of the Year in 1982); most of these songs seem more aimed at elementary age kids.  Comfort and ease going to Grandma and Grandpa’s House. She sings about bullying – using the melody of Wooly Bully in Stop That Bully. One sparkling gem is It Hurts (the Picked Last Song). A very nice touch is that Adegbalola provides lyrics and chord charts for all of these songs on her web site to make it easier for kids to learn the songs (I assume). Many local Blues Societies have Blues for Kids programs – Gaye’s “Blues in all Flavors” album would be an excellent resource. She has published her lyrics and essays here on her web site.

Good songwriters know that using the naked, unadorned truth can be incredibly powerful. Gaye Adegbalola has that power under great artistic control. Artists who have this many humorous songs are often regarded as novelty acts. Is Gaye Adegbalola a novelty act? In a sense, yes, because she is novel – totally her own category.

I listened to the Gaye Adegbalola albums Bitter Sweet Blues (1999 Alligator Records), Gaye Without Shame (2008 Hot Toddy), and Blues in all Flavors (2012 Hot Toddy). Also the 32 Saffire songs attributed to Adegbalola as composer on allmusic.com.

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/gaye-adegbalola-mn0000801526

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaye_Adegbalola

http://www.adegbalola.com/index.html

http://www.gayeandthewildrutz.com/

1. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/gaye-adegbalola-mn0000801526/biography

2. With the exception of Saffire members. If I am wrong about this, I’d really be pleased, and eager to know who made the recordings.

3. OK, sorry. 

Gary Nicholson

Gary Nicholson (Whitey Johnson)

Gary Nicholson may be the only blues songwriter I’ve written about (so far) who has received more writer royalty payments than Willie Dixon.

Nicholson writes in a variety of genres and I will guess that he has made more money from Country music than anything else. He is a Nashville pro with hit songs dating back to 1980’s “Jukebox Argument” recorded by Mickey Gilley and featured in the movie “Urban Cowboy”.  

His long-time relationship with Delbert McClinton (as guitarist, producer and co-writer) has led to over 30 blues-soaked songs including Better Off with the Blues, If You Can’t Lie No Better and You Ain’t Lost Nothin’.  A prolific co-writer, he often gets called in to complete songs that other writers or artists need help with. His songs have been recorded by B. B. King, Etta James, Bonnie Raitt, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells and many other established blues performers.

We get a songwriting lesson from Gary Nicholson simply by listening to his songs and, especially, by reading his lyrics. No clichés, solid structure, storylines, everyday conversational language. He has recorded one album of blues tunes as Whitey Johnson; this might be the best place to start studying what Nicholson can teach us about blues songwriting and co-writing.

A number of songs on “Whitey Johnson” are about romance (or lack of romance) and there are several songs that deal with topics outside that framework. Since many songs are co-writes, you don’t know exactly what Nicholson’s contribution was. However, two songs are solo writes and they stand out.

Blues in Black and White is an autobiographical account of how he came to recognize and understand racism as a child. He presents three vignettes about a childhood friend, a fellow band member and Dr. Martin Luther King being victims of racism. “How long, how long, must we struggle on before we… find a way to rise above the blues in black and white?” Devil Goin’ Fishin’ is about temptation: “Devil goin’ fishin’, and he’s got all the good bait…”

Some random gems –

A co-write with Donnie Fritts gives us a little movie posing as a song - Memphis Women and Chicken:

“There's a woman up on the bluff make her living making pies

Got chocolate covered fingers and dark blueberry eyes

Got that light powdered sugar sprinkled all in her hair

Her apple turnover is beyond compare

When it's hot late and sticky and you want something cool and sweet

She keeps the handle crankin’ on that homemade ice cream

Memphis women and good fried chicken, Memphis women and chicken”

From Leap of Faith:

“I had to rise back up on the ashes of love

And jump back into the fire”

Better Off With the Blues:

“Since you been gone I've had time to myself 

Haven't even tried to find somebody else 

When you told me you were leavin' it almost came as good news 

It may sound funny but it's true 

I think I'm better off with the blues” 

One main lesson from Gary Nicholson is summed up by this quote from Michael Laskow’s Taxi interview with Gary Nicholson that underscores the importance of giving the songwriting aspects of our music the attention it needs. “When I got to Gary's studio, it became clear to me why he's "the man." He's one of the top writers in Nashville, yet he's still got books like "Cliches" by Eric Partridge, "The Songwriter's Idea Book" by Sheila Davis, "The New Comprehensive American Rhyming Dictionary" by Sue Young, "Write From The Heart" by John Stewart, a book on American slang, another book called "Metaphorically Speaking", "The Essential Songwriter's Contract Handbook", and a few others on his shelf. Why does a songwriter of Gary's stature need to have these books? Because they're the tools of his craft.”

And from Gary himself: “I think you have to give yourself up to it. I think it's like anything else, if you want to be a songwriter more than anything else, you have to bleed for it—you have to be willing to work at it as hard as anyone would work at any career. You have to get up in the morning, drink your coffee, and then start working at songwriting—all day long. You have to live it. You look for every possible way that you can write songs. If you put that much energy into it, there's no way that you cannot have some kind of results-something's going to happen—if you work at it.”

Second year of the blues songwriter

I had stopped posting. I figured nobody was really interested in the topic and my desire to see blues songwriting improve was probably just selfish and motivated mostly by desire for recognition for my own songwriting.
But it IS important to me. So I'll be posting more reviews of blues songwriting that I believe is helpful for any blues songwriter who aspires to improve his or her writing. Like me!
I would LOVE IT if readers would comment, share their own insights about songwriting, agree or disagree with me and I would especially love to hear about blues songwriters we can all learn from!